Forget These Old School SEO Thoughts

What’s both exciting and challenging about SEO is that it’s an industry that is constantly evolving. What was considered best practice even just a few years ago might no longer be relevant. This is why it’s so important for those of us in the industry to stay informed by reading the search engine Webmaster Guidelines, visiting top industry blogs, and attending seminars and trainings. There are a few old school SEO thoughts that are still floating around as current SEO truths. The purpose of this post is to point them out and advise against thinking this way, which can both get your site into trouble and cause a lot of frustration throughout the SEO campaign.

#1 – SEO is about rank

“I want to be number 1 in Google!” Well, don’t we all but this really isn’t what SEO is about. If you hire an SEO firm just to hit that number one spot there’s a good chance that you will be very disappointed. First, it’s extremely difficult to get to number one, especially in a competitive industry and for a competitive keyword. Second, most legitimate SEO firms today will warn you against focusing on just rank. Rankings aren’t an accurate way to measure the success of an SEO campaign. Rankings fluctuate for many reasons. The personalization of search means that searchers will see something different in their search results based on their location, search history, social behavior, and more. In addition, the search algorithms are constantly being tweaked. Even a minor change can result in a move within a few positions. It doesn’t mean that you are doing anything wrong, it’s just the way it is. A much better indicator of SEO success is monitoring the number of visitors over the course of the SEO campaign and whether those visitors were qualified visitors that became conversions.

#2 – The more links the better

The search engines consider the links pointing to a site in order to determine how trusted the site is. Back in the day, the number of links mattered. This is why SEOs went out of their way looking for any place to get a link. The search engines caught on to the practice and have since changed how they view links. Now, it’s about the quality of the links pointing to a site as opposed to the quantity. So this means that a site that has 10,000 low quality link farm type links isn’t viewed as favorably as a site that may have less links, but they are all from high quality, legitimate sites that provide value.

#3 – Keyword density should be measured

SEO is all about keywords. In order to get your content to appear in the SERP for specific keywords, those keywords need to be included in that content. The old school thought was that you had to have the keyword in the content a certain number of times and even recommended a percentage per words on the page. However, the search engines are moving more towards viewing a page as a human reader would. Do they want to see the same keyword or keyword phrase over and over? Probably not. A page should absolutely be optimized for search, but in a way that is natural. Trying to fill a quota for a number of times the keyword should be on the page will result in a negative experience for the visitor.

Read What Full Service SEO Clients Say About SEO Firm Brick Marketing

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"Brick Marketing has been a tremendous resource for our business"

“Brick Marketing has been a tremendous resource for our business. Through their expertise with the ever changing world of SEO, our web presence is as strong as ever. Our working relationship with Nick Stamoulis and Danielle Bachini has been outstanding. In collaboration with web designer Chris Roberts, we were also able to develop the perfect responsive website that truly reflects our business. Thank you Brick Marketing!​”

– Ellen Parlee, Parlee Farms

"superior knowledge of marketing on the internet"

“I have had the good fortune to work with SEO expert Nick Stamoulis and his team at Brick Marketing and it was clear form the get go that Nick had superior knowledge of marketing on the internet. The SEO campaign and technical writing that Brick Marketing provides has been impressive, where in the past we struggled to find the high levels of competence in these two skill sets. Were only just beginning with Brick Marketing and look forward to growing with their expert guidance. Thank you Nick Stamoulis and the Brick Marketing team!”

– Craig Raubenheimer, President, Roan Solutions, Inc.

"went above and beyond to help us with any SEO issues"

“We hired Brick Marketing to manage our SEO, but they ended up also managing our company blog, social media marketing, helped us launch a pay per click advertising campaign, migrated our website to a new domain and so much more! Our SEO Specialist is always quick to respond whenever we had a question and went above and beyond to help us with any SEO issues.”

– Mory Creighton, CEO, Pinpoint Laser Systems

"Our keyword rankings have improved and traffic has increased"

“The Brick Marketing team, was critical to ensuring that our new Web site is optimized to drive maximum traffic. Our keyword rankings have improved and traffic has increased thanks to her assistance and advice. In addition, they executed a strategic link building program that helped further increase Web traffic.”

– Lauren LaFronz, Director of Marketing, enChoice, Inc.

"dependable, professional SEO company"

“Brick Marketing has been a dependable, professional SEO company that has helped us get results. In the last 6 months of using their services, visits to our website have increased by almost 30%. Our dedicated SEO Specialist was pleasant to deal with. Her suggestions for articles and press releases were industry specific. Brick Marketing always answered our phone calls and emails within an hour which made us feel valued as a client. I would recommend Brick Marketing to all businesses to handle their SEO needs.”

– JoAnne Loftus, Archival Designs, Inc.

"Brick Marketing is rock solid and essential in building a strong marketing foundation."

“Brick Marketing is extremely valuable for feedback and advice in many aspects of marketing, not just SEO and I look forward to continuing to work with them over the long term to continually improve our business and increase sales. That’s what it’s all about. Just like their name implies, Brick Marketing is rock solid and essential in building a strong marketing foundation.”

– Jeff Nicholson, President Freely Creative, Inc. / Websticker.com

"Brick Marketing is levels above all others...an integral part of my team"

“I have formed an invaluable marketing partnership with Brick Marketing. Nick Stamoulis and the rest of the Brick Marketing team are professional, timely, thorough and take time to, not only succeed at the tasks, but also educate myself and my team on the strategies in the process. Since my first encounter working with Brick, I’ve changed organizations and have taken them along with me…they are that good! In my experience in working with many outside agencies who over-promise and under-communicate, I can truly state that Brick Marketing is levels above all others and vested in our relationship. They are not just an SEO consultant, but an integral part of my team. I highly recommend Brick Marketing for any company looking to significantly increase search engine competitiveness and internet presence.​”

– Jodi Murphy, Marketing Director EUXmedia

"Brick Marketing is "solid" when it comes to support for SEO marketing advice"

“I had been impressed for a long time with the content that Brick Marketing was sharing in their informative blog posts and articles. I chatted with Nick Stamoulis a couple times and decided that he was the expert I wanted to work with. I have worked with Brick Marketing for about six months and they have helped us resolve several SEO related issues pertaining to our website. Our account rep is always just an email away with answers to any questions I have and suggestions for how we can improve what we’re doing. Brick Marketing is “solid” when it comes to support for SEO marketing advice. I definitely recommend them if you want to feel more secure about how your website is performing in searches and have the confidence that everything being done to improve your rank is white hat and legit.”

– Paul Rarick, Debbiegrattan.com

"traffic has increased over 80% year-over-year"

“When we started working with Brick Marketing, we had just been subjected to a Google algorithm update and our websites both took substantial hits to traffic. Within a few months, Brick has taken both of our websites to pre-algorithm traffic and conversion levels, and for the CallFinder site, the traffic has increased over 80% year-over-year. Their expertise in SEO, responsive design, and content marketing helped us turn the situation around, and we could not be happier with the results we’ve seen in just our first four months of working with them. The team we work with at Brick Marketing is always available for off-the-cuff consultations and are at the ready to provide recommendations and suggestions to improve our site’s appearance and performance. They are truly a hands-on partner, which is immensely valuable to our business.​”

"highly recommend Brick Marketing to all of my clients"

“After working with many other SEO firms and not being satisfied I finally was introduced to the Brick Marketing President and Founder, Nick Stamoulis. Nick Stamoulis has educated me about SEO and has provided me with a well rounded SEO package, not only does he offer top quality services he also educates his clients and spends the time to explain everything and their SEO pricing is competitive. I will highly recommend Brick Marketing to all of my clients. Brick Marketing is an A+ for SEO services.”